Code Words

THE SILLINESS of Vice President Dan Quayle's recent remarks holding television shows responsible for the riots in Los Angeles ("I wish the media were here in the streets with me today," said that old habitue of the streets. "They ought to come to the real world and find out about the future.") should not blind us to their political importance.David Gergen, of the "MacNeil-Lehrer News Hour," surmised that one consequence of the Los Angeles riots would probably be that the Republicans would forgo playing "the race card" in this year's election, and I found myself agreeing.

WASHINGTON - Echoing comments by Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama, Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sebelius predicted that Republicans would undertake "a major effort to try and frighten people about him" because of his race. "That has been the Republican playbook for the last eight years," said Sebelius, an Obama ally. "'He's not qualified; he's somebody who should scare you. He's too liberal.'" Sebelius, often mentioned as a possible running mate for Obama, said those were all "code words" to try to make voters "uncomfortable."

Part of the fun of booking a bed and breakfast inn for you and your children is the opportunity to experience another lifestyle. Where else can you get the chance to sleep in the place of your dreams?If your kids are learning about the Civil War, find an antebellum plantation house for an overnight. If your city-bred children like animals, select a farmhouse with wheat fields and horses. If you want to explore the country, choose an isolated lodge with a fishing stream and a front-porch view of the mountains.

For anyone who somehow missed picking up one of the 43 million hardcover copies of The Da Vinci Code that have been sold around the world in the past three years, the publisher is finally getting around to releasing the paperback -- in a big way. On March 28, Random House will be placing 5 million softcover copies of Dan Brown's conspiracy-minded religious thriller in an array of outlets well beyond your neighborhood bookstore, including drugstores, supermarkets,...

LONDON -- It's the telephone call that can freeze an entire news room: The Irish Republican Army is on the line.But how is a journalist supposed to know it's really the IRA?The caller utters a recognized code, known to media and police. It confirms that the IRA is going to do something terrifying, or take responsibility for something that's already happened.The IRA holds no press conferences.Its unique form of terrorist confirmation was put into play again after Monday's double car bomb attack on Northern Ireland's most heavily secured area, the British army headquarters in Lisburn.

The Republicans of Maryland are feeling a little edgy today. David Duke says he's coming here in March, and everybody around George Bush wants to make one thing clear: This guy has nothing to do with us.''David Duke's a phony,'' Richard Taylor, Republican National Committeeman for Maryland, said yesterday. ''He's a charlatan. He's a fascist and a racist.''Is that clear enough?''Duke's an opportunist and a charlatan,'' said Kevin Igoe, executive director of the Maryland Republican Party. ''And he's a racist bigot.

THE NEWEST Maryland census figures raise the oldest of American social questions: Can we learn to live with each other as human beings instead of ominous tides of skin colors and cultures? The white exodus that began about 40 years ago in the famous blossoming of For Sale signs on front lawns all over the city continues in the new century - only now the suburban trek has been joined by black families, thus changing the exodus only by degree: Baltimore County's black population has increased 77 percent in the past 10 years, a remarkable growth of 66,000 people.

A Howard County circuit judge whose remarks from the bench have long raised eyebrows crossed the line when he told a black criminal defendant that "people moved out here" to escape from people like him in the city, the state's highest court ruled yesterday. The Court of Appeals erased an 18-year prison sentence handed down by Judge James B. Dudley and returned the case to Howard County for resentencing by a different judge. At a time of increasing sensitivity to bias in sentencing, the case raised questions of how far a judge can go in railing against society's ills and using what people might interpret as racial code words.

Boston.--The TelePrompTer had hardly stopped rolling, the president had barely glad-handed his way out of the House chamber, when the analysts and politicians all began deconstructing his text. Health care, crime, welfare -- they waded through the words looking for portents about policy and clues about compromise.But from my listening post, way outside the chamber and well beyond the Beltway, I was most conscious of the voice Bill Clinton used. Not just the words of policy but the underlying sound of values:''In our toughest neighborhoods, on our meanest streets in our poorest rural areas, we have seen a stunning and simultaneous breakdown of community, family and work, the heart and soul of civilized society.

PHOENIX - When I told my television station's news director a few months ago that I intended to end nearly 30 years in print and broadcast journalism, I borrowed a line from a former British minister's resignation letter. I said I wanted to spend more time with my principles. I don't think he understood. How could anyone walk away from a job that many people would kill to have? Pay and benefits were certainly not an issue. And I thoroughly enjoyed and admired the people I worked with.

Brooklyn Park residents are used to elevated insurance rates and mix-ups with their mail, but in the past few days, they've discovered a new reason to resent sharing a ZIP code with neighboring Baltimore - cell phone fees. Residents of the Anne Arundel County neighborhood reviewing their July cell phone bills have spotted notes informing them that they will soon be charged an extra $3.50 a month. The reason? The Baltimore City Council voted in June to impose a new cellular fee as part of its fiscal 2005 budget.

A Howard County circuit judge whose remarks from the bench have long raised eyebrows crossed the line when he told a black criminal defendant that "people moved out here" to escape from people like him in the city, the state's highest court ruled yesterday. The Court of Appeals erased an 18-year prison sentence handed down by Judge James B. Dudley and returned the case to Howard County for resentencing by a different judge. At a time of increasing sensitivity to bias in sentencing, the case raised questions of how far a judge can go in railing against society's ills and using what people might interpret as racial code words.

Howard County Circuit Judge James B. Dudley's use of "racial cliches" while sentencing a black defendant in August 1999 introduced judicial "bias" into the sentencing process, a public defender argued yesterday before Maryland's highest court. Assistant Public Defender Nancy Forster, the chief of the appellate division, said "code words" - animal, ghetto and jungle - in Dudley's speech should be enough for the Maryland Court of Appeals to send Valentino Maurice Jackson's case back before a different Howard County judge for a new sentencing hearing.

THE NEWEST Maryland census figures raise the oldest of American social questions: Can we learn to live with each other as human beings instead of ominous tides of skin colors and cultures? The white exodus that began about 40 years ago in the famous blossoming of For Sale signs on front lawns all over the city continues in the new century - only now the suburban trek has been joined by black families, thus changing the exodus only by degree: Baltimore County's black population has increased 77 percent in the past 10 years, a remarkable growth of 66,000 people.

PHOENIX - When I told my television station's news director a few months ago that I intended to end nearly 30 years in print and broadcast journalism, I borrowed a line from a former British minister's resignation letter. I said I wanted to spend more time with my principles. I don't think he understood. How could anyone walk away from a job that many people would kill to have? Pay and benefits were certainly not an issue. And I thoroughly enjoyed and admired the people I worked with.

The sayings were common on Army training posts across the nation.Promising young soldiers were said to be "locked in tight."And almost every morning during call-and-response drills came the sergeant's cry: "Company, are you in the game?" "Yes, drill sergeant," came the reply.But at Aberdeen Proving Ground those sayings became code for sexual conquest and shared secrets, a perversion of Army terms that symbolizes a corrupted chain of command.Now, as the Army prosecutes Staff Sgt. Delmar G. Simpson on 19 counts of rape, Aberdeen officers have banned the phrases -- illustrating the skittishness on a base that has become ground zero in a military-wide search for illegal sex in the ranks.

The Louisiana campaign of former Klansman David Duke touched a nerve among Marylanders as no out-of-state contest has in years.Black, Jewish and white Marylanders rejoiced to hear that Mr. Duke -- who spewed campaign rhetoric brewed from racial code words -- had been rejected decisively by Louisiana voters, 61 percent to 39 percent."

Lynne V. Cheney, chairman of the National Endowment for the Humanities, issued a report yesterday condemning the politicization of the nation's colleges and universities. Humanities departments on many campuses, Ms. Cheney charges, have become bastions of "politically correct" thinking. As a result, conservative voices have been stilled, and academic standards have deteriorated. Following are excerpts from the report's first chapter, "Politics on the Campus." TO someone visiting one of today's scholarly conventions, inhibition of thought and expression might not seem a problem.

LONDON -- It's the telephone call that can freeze an entire news room: The Irish Republican Army is on the line.But how is a journalist supposed to know it's really the IRA?The caller utters a recognized code, known to media and police. It confirms that the IRA is going to do something terrifying, or take responsibility for something that's already happened.The IRA holds no press conferences.Its unique form of terrorist confirmation was put into play again after Monday's double car bomb attack on Northern Ireland's most heavily secured area, the British army headquarters in Lisburn.